updated 02:44 pm EST, Wed February 6, 2013

Physical game registrations to kill secondhand market

Microsoft's next console will need an Internet connection to operate, according to reports. A new version of Xbox Live will apparently be central to the console itself, and through registering physical games to an individual account, would render discs useless to anyone else wanting to play them, and in effect kill off the second-hand games market.

Sources ofEdge that have "first-hand experience" with the new console say that, though it will require an Internet connection, games will still be available to buy on discs. These will be Blu-ray discs with a 50GB capacity, and will be accompanied by an activation code for registration. Such a process would prevent game buyers from selling games on to others in order to recoup some of their investment, and would make game rentals almost impossible to implement.

The same source claims that the new console will have an AMD eight-core x64 1.6GHz CPU, D3D11.x 800MHz graphics, and 8GB of RAM, matching a previously leaked system architecture map. The storage capacity for the hard drive has yet to be decided, though the commitment to downloadable games suggests it will be one of the largest hard drives ever shipped with a games console. An improved version of the Kinect motion tracking system will also accompany the console at launch.

That's pretty much the only thing they could do that would stop me from buying the new console the minute it comes out. If they mount an all-out assault on used and hand-me-down games like this, they'd better hope that Sony does, too, or they are going to lose a LOT of customers.